Leicester Tigers 2016/17 Squad/Transfers/Contract thread 3

[kpj tiger]

Fissler also mentions MOC is wanting to bring in a few of his players including a couple Rohan's. (Off to do some research on Tongan players.

This typo got me so excited because I thought be were signing Rohan Janse Van Rensburg for a second

[Hot_Charlie]

Fissler saying Tigers are in talks with Aaron Morris.

.

No smoke without fire, so Tigers are after a Quins' full back, but not Brown!

A few years ago and Irish friend came to me saying that we had Peter Stringer lined up for the next season... Tom Tierney had a reasonable couple of seasons after he arrived that summer!

[kpj tiger]

I started looking through a few Tongan players when I realised O'Connor had been coaching them, seemed to make sense he may target a few given historically we've benefitted from some south sea islander physicality in our side.
Here are some of the players that stood out.

Valentino Mapapalangi - 23 year old, primarily an 8, but also covers lock and 6. Very physical.
Latiume Fosita - 24yr old fly half, also plays 12 and 15, currently playing for Auckland.
Viliame Hakalo - 28yr old centre, very explosive, currently playing for Nottingham.

Mapapalangi looks like a decent prospect, the others I'm not so sure about

[TigerCam]

So much for 'home grow' 'talent? A smack in the eye for the Tigers Academy

[RagingBull]

So much for 'home grow' 'talent? A smack in the eye for the Tigers Academy

Not signed anyone currently.

Also depends on the position. Not every academy player in every position is going to be up to standard.

So let's wait before saying its a smack in the face to the academy.

[kpj tiger]

So much for 'home grow' 'talent? A smack in the eye for the Tigers Academy

If there isn't the quality in the current crop then what are they supposed to do?

[Clowbeck]

I started looking through a few Tongan players when I realised O'Connor had been coaching them, seemed to make sense he may target a few given historically we've benefitted from some south sea islander physicality in our side.
Here are some of the players that stood out.

Valentino Mapapalangi - 23 year old, primarily an 8, but also covers lock and 6. Very physical.
Latiume Fosita - 24yr old fly half, also plays 12 and 15, currently playing for Auckland.
Viliame Hakalo - 28yr old centre, very explosive, currently playing for Nottingham.

Mapapalangi looks like a decent prospect, the others I'm not so sure about

Mapapalangi would be a great addition to our back row, primarily as 8. Priority for me though is a fly half that will (ideally) challenge Ford for being named in starting 15; at the least a fly half that can hold own in play and kicking whilst Ford on international duty or injured.

[voice of the crumbie]

Fissler also mentions MOC is wanting to bring in a few of his players including a couple Rohan's. (Off to do some research on Tongan players.

This typo got me so excited because I thought be were signing Rohan Janse Van Rensburg for a second

He would certainly fit the profile for Tigers. Explosive centre who had knee ligament surgery on Friday.

[johnthegriff]

With reference to the comments regarding young players not signing for Tigers there are rules governing approaches to young prospects or their parents not in our Academy area. To contact some one already on the books of another clubs academy would attract some form of sanction. Of course the initial approach could come from the player himself to a club out of area but possibly this would pose difficulties in getting to training and matches until education at least to A level was complete.

[johnthegriff]

In view of some of the comments regarding Tongan players I looked at the list of their players and I see there is a 21 year old flanker I know absolutely nothing about but I like his name and I think we should sign Bill Fukofuka. I look forward to commentary when he plays!

[BFG]

With reference to the comments regarding young players not signing for Tigers there are rules governing approaches to young prospects or their parents not in our Academy area. To contact some one already on the books of another clubs academy would attract some form of sanction. Of course the initial approach could come from the player himself to a club out of area but possibly this would pose difficulties in getting to training and matches until education at least to A level was complete.

I always thought if a player was not under contract then he could move, and if it is a young player of a certain age who had formative years at another academy then some form of compensation payment was required, but that is just an assumption off what I was once told, I'm not 100% sure of the fact!

[TigerCam]

So much for 'home grow' 'talent? A smack in the eye for the Tigers Academy

If there isn't the quality in the current crop then what are they supposed to do?

Sort the Academy out and get producing young 'quality' players! If they don't know how, they should just ask Sarries, Wasps, and Exeter for starters? Bringing in foreign players dilutes the potential English talent pool. IMO the Prem has too many foreign players as it is - heading down the football road IMO? Before we know it WR will be nationally know as the 'Leicester Tongans'. With collapse of SA rugby, there is the possibility of another 70 to 80 players looking at the NH for a wage packet. Talented young Brits come first IMO. Cohen is harping on about higher wages despite the increase in the Salary Cap with many clubs including Tigers making a loss (TRP)?

[johnthegriff]

I agree with Tigercam about producing home grown talent, the emergence of Worth, Evans, Thacker etcetera show that Tigers are doing just that. There has been changes to our Academy system which hopefully given time will produce results. We certainly do not need lessons from Wasps but maybe we should learn from our past just as Saracens and Exeter learned from us. We fans demand success so a mixture of home grown talent boosted by signing young projects like Genge and Barrow and a few foreign players with the odd star is the way to achieve that. Some of the criticism of Tigers in this thread is a little unfair in that it is based on an unsubstantiated Fisler report. We currently have just one Tongan player who has developed with us, I doubt very much that MOC is about to flood the team with Islander signings, I imagine he will simply assess the squad he has inherited and money permitting will tweak it where he thinks necessary.

[RagingBull]

I agree with Tigercam about producing home grown talent, the emergence of Worth, Evans, Thacker etcetera show that Tigers are doing just that. There has been changes to our Academy system which hopefully given time will produce results. We certainly do not need lessons from Wasps but maybe we should learn from our past just as Saracens and Exeter learned from us. We fans demand success so a mixture of home grown talent boosted by signing young projects like Genge and Barrow and a few foreign players with the odd star is the way to achieve that. Some of the criticism of Tigers in this thread is a little unfair in that it is based on an unsubstantiated Fisler report. We currently have just one Tongan player who has developed with us, I doubt very much that MOC is about to flood the team with Islander signings, I imagine he will simply assess the squad he has inherited and money permitting will tweak it where he thinks necessary.

Ironically the two Tongans who MOC have coach that will 100% be with us next season where signed by other coaches.

Agree Fissler is just throwing darts here if there was anything substantial he would of named a name. I'm pretty sure every team in Europe are looking at PI players to sign anyway.

[TTRITH]

Sort the Academy out and get producing young 'quality' players! If they don't know how, they should just ask Sarries, Wasps, and Exeter for starters? Bringing in foreign players dilutes the potential English talent pool. IMO the Prem has too many foreign players as it is - heading down the football road IMO? Before we know it WR will be nationally know as the 'Leicester Tongans'. With collapse of SA rugby, there is the possibility of another 70 to 80 players looking at the NH for a wage packet. Talented young Brits come first IMO. Cohen is harping on about higher wages despite the increase in the Salary Cap with many clubs including Tigers making a loss (TRP)?

Calm down TC, we're not all dead yet.

In fairness I think there is the impetus on the academy and using our academy players now, and if not academy grads then at least young English talent. The noise around Hardwick being brought straight in above and at the expense of Oli Bryant does suggest that moves to ensure our academy is producing quality players. Let's be honest, George Ford, Matt Toomua, Joe Ford and Tom Hardwick as our first choice fly halves suggests that based on injury records and international call ups, Tom is going to get plenty of exposure next season.

At Scrum half as well, it's good to see that of our 4 scrum halves, 3 have come through our academy. Ben White looks a fantastic prospect, I would actually expect White and Hardwick to be producing the goods during the LV cup.

Outside of that though, it doesn't look great admittedly. However the emergence of Worth, C. Thacker, Evans, H. Thacker, Wells (admittedly he took a detour to Bedford) suggests the academy hasn't completely stopped churning and hopefully they'll be matched with Yawayawa, Betts and Maksymiw and not to mention promising youngsters in Barrow and Genge. I think we're in good hands.

Also, if you wanted evidence that the academy is in the right hands, Brett Deacons work on our defense since he took the role has helped us, aside from a few heads gone moments we're looking something like the dogged sides that we saw September - January of MOC's previous tenure, before we scored trys for fun in the second part of the season.

I'm comfortable at the moment that our balance in the squad is okay. Admittedly if we get 5 or 6 Tongans I'd be concerned, but we also don't know how many other players may head off this season.